234 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



WITH THE NORMANS. ARMORIAL BEARINGS. SIMON ST LIZ. 



EARL FERRERS AND OKEHAM. CURIOUS CUSTOM. DEATH OF 



WILLIAM THE CONftUEROR. 



Britain probably received its earliest population from 

 Gallia Celtica some centuries before the Christian era, and 

 these Belgian or Cimbri were what we now term the an- 

 cient Britons. The island, however, was in all probability 

 populated before the arrival of these wanderers, though we 

 know little of its history until the advent of the Romans. 

 At Caesar's invasion it was well populated, and the interior 

 was inhabited by people who believed themselves to be 

 autochtho)ies. The southern and eastern coasts were more 

 particularly occupied by the emigrants from Belgic Gaul, 

 who had crossed the channel and the northern sea, attract- 

 ed by the prospect of plunder. After having obtained a 

 footing they became agiiculturists. They possessed the 

 same manners as the Gauls, though their social con- 

 dition was less advanced ; the Celts in Gaul having 

 attained a comparatively high degree of civilization. They 

 were also more fierce than their kindred on the other side 

 of the channel, and were altogether, perhaps, in a jiiore 

 degraded condition than those tribes we have been con- 

 sidering. Their religion was the same as that of the 

 Gauls, and Tacitus tells us that they had the same wor- 

 ship and the same superstitions.' Druidism found a con- 

 genial home in Britain when banished from the con- 

 tinent, though it had existed in this country, in all 

 likelihood, from the landing of the nomads ; and with its 

 mysto'rious and dismal rites, it no doubt claimed the same 



' Agricola, ii. 



